exp for now, but more to come, 4,200 to all players, 800 more for those who went after the tree, 1000 for those protecting the children, and Lumas gains 500 additional for saving team members without risk to himself. Oh and Elric gets 50 for foolhardy bravery. ;)

After quite a journey through a less taken path up the the mountain dwelling of the kobolds, the group—Tec, Suska, Elric, Lumas, Morgan, Ingo, the 4 Kobold children and I (Nyan the Fire Gazer), along with our new companion Giltren—all parked the cart and set up camp in a spacious area to rest. After setting up the night’s watches, everyone did their own thing for a time, and then turned in for the night. The night was going smoothly until Elric got up for his shift. He spotted a camp fire quite a distance down the cliff from the path we had just traveled on. In an attempt to figure out who or what it could be, he woke Lumas, asking for his telescope to try and see better. After only spotting silhouettes, Elric decided to place a marker to remind him exactly where he had been when he had seen this. Suddenly he smelled something bad and heard a rustling from behind him. Taking cautious steps, he moved to Giltren (who was going to take the next shift) and woke him up. Meanwhile, I was grappled and dragged away from camp by some sort of small, wrinkly, smelly, orc-looking things. In an attempt to escape, I shape-shifted into a wolf and only got to slightly free myself; I then gave a howl to alert my group. Down at the camp only two had heard the howl, but at the same time one of the children started to scream his head off. Many of the group ran to the biggest tent where the kobold children slept, while the commotion had yet to wake the last few others. On arrival at the tent, Suska, Elric, and Giltren saw two of the wrinkled “orc” creatures dragging a child away and went to stop them. In the tent, Morgan fended off and succeeded in killing a third creature, preventing it from taking the screaming child. Suska and Elric succeeded in releasing the children and finishing off the “orcs” with Giltren’s help. While that was going on, Tec noticed a trail of darts falling down from the cliff side and headed up to follow it. Elric called out to everyone to make sure everyone was present and realized that there was no response from me. He then tried to climb up the cliff, but failed miserably. Following Elric, Ingo took a potion to start climbing up. Next, Lumas cast spells to make Morgan climb quite fast. Suska then used her shield to help her climb, and Giltren headed up. Finally, after many attempts to release myself by shape-shifting between my normal self and other forms, I was released. As I tried to get up, one “orc” tackled me back down. I decided to use my fire, which happened to also help the others to locate me. Tec was first to arrive, followed shortly by Morgan with Lumas on his back. Once they’d helped me out I realized what it was that had just attacked. They were wortlings, a form of fruit from a gigantic flesh-eating tree called an Orcwort. They could be very dangerous and were not of the natural order. Tec, to my surprise, asked to carry and fly me down to camp, and then picked me up and flew. The others saw us coming down and followed with some disappointment. Back at camp, I informed the others of the wortlings and that they were dragging the children and I to the tree as food. We all started to discuss what would be the best actions to take. Elric at first wanted to leave the spot and hoped the wortlings would get who/whatever seemed to be following us, Suska could not think of putting any form of life in danger and wanted to search out the tree and destroy it, Lumas . . . , Ingo didn’t want to waste the time, Tec thought it was completely worthless to waste time and wanted us to just continue to take the children back, Giltren had left long before this, and I just didn’t want to see nature getting destroyed in almost any form. Eventually, Lumas got tired of the arguing and just took off, making himself and Morgan invisible. We all agreed that he couldn’t go alone, so with great difficulty, we figured out who would stay with the children and who would follow Lumas and Morgan: Suska and I agreed to stay at camp while the others followed.

At the camp, Suska and I lit the perimeter of the camp with Ingo’s sun rods. We started to pace the inside of the perimeter. We then noticed that the fire that Elric had spotted was out. Suska thought it would be best if the camp was packed and ready in case anything happened. I decided to follow the lead and helped. Afterward Suska watched the perimeter along the torches and I on top of the cart. Suska then spotted something and said something to me about something shimmering through the trees, but I didn’t see anything. Soon after, we spotted shimmering black eyes coming down from the cliff. Suska pulled out her crossbow and started shooting as I created my trusty fire sphere. The eyes belonged to four more Wortlings. After finishing them, we decided to take the cart and take off before whatever Suska had seen caught up to us.

The group following the tree: On his way, Lumas ran into Giltren and together they finally caught up to the tree. Soon after, Elric, Ingo, and Tec caught up with Giltren and Lumas. Giltren was up in a tree throwing axes at the wortlings, then something invisible seemed to attack one of the wortlings. Tec made a realization that the invisible attacker was possibly Lumas and/or Morgan. Tec then roasty-toastied many of the wortling pods on the tree. Eventually Tec ventured a bit closer to see if he could do more damage, but got dragged up and eaten by the tree. Lumas then sent Morgan to rescue Tec and succeeded only in getting Morgan eaten too. Lumas decided to un-summon Morgan to release him. Elric then started to rage and attack, but also got dragged, eaten and paralyzed like Tec. Once again Lumas summoned Morgan back to rescue Elric and once again succeeded only in getting Morgan eaten. Ingo, meanwhile, pulled the two paralyzed teammates away from danger. Suska and I then spotted a huge tree being illuminated by fire. Once we got there, Tec came around, got on the carriage, started to aim the ballista at the tree and finished it off. Everyone then went and salvaged what they wanted from the tree and pulled out a good amount of loot from the tree’s mouth.

Autumn, the Kobold caves North East of Hind, AT 342,
I am Ingo Gertroy. I do not think you believe that I am writing this for you, just as I am certain I do not know who I am writing this for. But the last entry of Nalaena’s journal should be written; she deserves that. It is my belief, that if you have read to this point, Nala means something to you, and if that is so, you deserve to know her end. Hers was a grisly and savage end that moved me to dark actions and still moves me to even darker thoughts. I hope you will excuse that I attempt to illuminate past entries and that I will undoubtedly put much of myself in these last few pages. After reading the later pages of her journal, one would know some of my darkness. I must suppose you are asking why I—whom she calls “a man with the mind of an abacus and a heart more jaded than my own—” might choose to write down her end rather than one of the others. Surely someone else knew her better or, at least, knew humanity better. This is true, but the telling of a thing is cathartic. And I am greedy. In truth, I need this as much as you.
Before I write of her death, I find I must write some about those of us who walked with her to her end and failed to save her from it. We; Elric, Suska, Tek, Lumus, Morgan, Nyan, and myself; took Nalaena at face value and made no attempt to scratch below her superficial shell. We all saw her as a she wanted us to: a lusty woman of ill repute, capable of slithering through back allies and enrapturing men’s hearts, possessing the ability to become truly dangerous if the need arose. None of use suspected her nobility. She, on the other hand, sussed us out rather well.
Elric did resent Nala for revealing his knighthood as a charade. It is an irony befitting a bard’s songs that a noble who threw away her nobility saw the false nobility of another when no one else did:
“He had all of the look of a knight. He shined in his armor like a metal peacock, and all eyes turned to him causing his cheeks to visibly swell from the smile forming. He turned his smile to all but me. He was not rude though he did try to dismiss me when I approached. I thought it was because he was fearful of being tarnished by my reputation. I soon realized it was because he actually believed in his code of chivalry, and that was what tipped me off to what he really was, for so few of the nobility give that which makes them noble more them lip service.”
Suska clashed with Nala. Suska has the surliness one might expect of her Dwarven heritage, but without any of the pragmatism that her race is also so known for. Instead, Suska is an idealist with little more than Elric to ground her. It was her belief that a handful of people could alter fate and lighten the load on the backs of the Vatasin Empire’s peasantry. I am flabbergasted at the hubris, but I, like Nalaena, have started to believe it to some degree as of late. As an avid pragmatist, I may be the only person more drastically opposed in nature to Suska then Nala was. I think Suska both pitied and resented Nala. She found her position in life pitiable, but I think Nalaena’s freedom in that life contrasted with Suska’s life of rigidity and made her somewhat resentful. I think Nala was right when she wrote,
“I am sure Suska resented Elric’s deception, and I suspect some of the resentment fell upon me as well. I did not deceive her, but she seems to hold me as lower than him. I think it is their relational undercurrents and my position that causes her to hold me so low in such light as this. Still she sees some measure of good in me, and I am thinking of taking her up on her offer. Hell, I will still be getting paid and I might do some good.”
It is here that my understanding is surmounted, for it is beyond me how a Paladin who had such conflicts could enfold a prostitute into her plans for relieving the oppressed of this Empire. I am no man of faith, but Suska’s decision must have been inspired; logic does not allow it otherwise.
Tec genuinely thought well of Nala; for Kobold culture does not hold her profession with the distain we humans have, and he personally felt beholden to her for her valiant protection of the Kobold children as we made our night-run for the protective walls of Hind. She wrote, “As the others fought to hold those nightmares at bay, I ran. I just grabbed the children and tossed them on the horses and ran to the cottage we had just paced. Once I had the little lizards safe, my pride forced me to return to the fight. I would be damned if they would look down on me.” As you have probably deduced, Nalaena was self-deprecating. I am an alchemist: I know more of formulas and chemicals then I do the minds and wills of men. That being the case, I suspect that this self-deprecating manner was born out of honest belief in the early portion of this journal, but I find its continuation merely habit in the later portions. Nala saved those “little lizards” while we fought the undead back. Had she not run, some of those scaly hides might not be still growing. As to the ambiguity of “they,” I do not think she spoke of us; rather, I think she spoke of the Kobolds despite the comical nature of such imagery. Saving the Kobolds meant a lot to her. The kids looked up to her and even played about her; none of the adults shooed them away. It shames me that I had to read it in her journal to realize why such an event would be so moving for her.
The length of this day sits upon me. My eyes flutter and no shaking of my head seems to end it. I will finish, but I must end here for tonight.

While Elric, Nala, Nyan, and Suska busied themselves with saving a besieged village from a pack of bandits, the others proceeded on to keep the party’s “main objective,” which was to protect the kobold queen from Duke Kinter Cassio’s assembly of knights. They rode for a time and did catch up to the queen and her honor guard, at which point they concocted a distraction for the knights, which included disguising the strongest fighter of the guard as the queen. After some light-hearted teasing at this kobold’s expense, Lumas summoned a horse for the queen to ride ahead on. Moments later, one of the two other kobolds who had decided to stay behind in support of the new “queen” spotted a dust cloud in the distance and alerted the others that the knights were coming. The group laid out a trap comprised of pits and well-hidden spikes for the knights’ horses to fall through. Lumas cast a spell to make the two of the guard not disguised invisible to add to the element of surprise and Tec cast a shield spell. Also in preparation for the onslaught, Ingo grabbed up a tripod, lay down with it, and mounted a giant crossbow to it.
p. Thus organized, the group defended themselves stoutly against the five knights—one of which carried a flaming lance—trapping two in the pits they’d dug. At one point, the “queen” was struck by a particularly observant knight, who knocked the borrowed crown from “her” head and realized he and his troupe had been fooled into attempting to capture a decoy. Enraged (and likely a bit embarrassed), he urged his mount into a hard gallop in the direction they had initially been heading, in pursuit of the true queen. In spite of this setback and some injuries, Tec, his two kinsmen, Ingo, and Lumas dispensed of the remaining knights; Lumas had the presence of mind to follow the lone runner astride Morgan.
p. When the dust had settled and the remaining party members had a moment to look around, Elric, Nala, Nyan, and Suska caught up to them on foot, having had to leave their exhausted horses behind. Reunited, the whole party shared information and took stock of the fallen knights’ possessions, among which was an extraordinary but injured mix-breed horse that was ready and willing to still run. Having noted this, some insisted that a strong rider take the horse in pursuit of the runaway knight in spite of its injury, which Nyan realized was severe enough to cripple the animal if forced to run; the more soft-hearted of the lot, including Nyan, Eric and Suska, could not bring themselves to allow such treatment of a living creature. While the others argued back and forth, impetuous Nala mounted the stallion and attempted to end the argument by leaving no choice, but was thrown to the ground by the surprised beast instead. Two of the kobolds quickly grabbed its reins. Ingo was particularly anxious to get on with the chase in spite of the consequences to the horse, but was convinced through promise of reimbursement of ingredient cost by Elric to instead feed it a restoration potion that would allow the run without further disservice to the impressive creature.
p. Potion (very grudgingly) given, Elric grabbed up the flaming lance, mounted and stripped off the horse’s armor as he went to more effectively give chase. He quickly caught up to Lumas and Morgan. Lumas saw the speed advantage and hopped up behind Elric, unsummoning Morgan. Together, they gained on the determined knight, causing him to wheel about to face them and draw the sword at his hip, which became a lance as he drew it. Eyes wide, the two drew up and prepared for a joust. Lumas once again summoned Morgan to aid in battle, and together they took on the intimidating knight. Elric pressed particularly hard, sending bits of armor flying from the knight’s body. Morgan tried to pin their combatant, but left an opening for the knight to swallow a potion none of them could readily identify. After the horseman attempted to unsaddle him, Elric went into a rage, charged, and impaled him on his looted lance, launching bits of gore into the air.
p. Meanwhile, Lumas and Elric’s associates quarreled over how to treat the two of Cassio’s champions who they found were left alive but unconscious. Once again, Tec and Ingo were at odds with Suska and Nala: Tec and Ingo asserted that the two should be killed to avoid drawing further ire from Cassio, while Suska and Nala couldn’t abide taking the lives of two unconscious men. Ultimately, one of their kobold companions suggested that they be placed into custody in the kobolds’ prison, which drew a consensus from the group. Elric and Lumas made it back to the group. They made camp where they were and established the night’s watches.
p. During Nala’s watch, she heard a gurgling noise and moved from her post to find its source. She followed the sound to a monstrous humanoid with pale skin whose mouth dribbled blood. The thing dropped the knight prisoner it had been feeding on, and Nala realized it was a wight. The wight grabbed her face as she screamed alarm, but was struck from behind by an awakened kobold spearman and a dagger from Ingo. Nala took this opportunity to make a run for it, but was snatched again by the wight, who weakened her visibly with a touch. Unbelievably, the wight’s body ejected Ingo’s dagger then, and those who saw this realized it drew energy from the living to keep its body going. By then, Suska had come up on the horror, striking it from behind and yelling for someone to check on the fallen knight. Nala answered the call by slinking silently up to his body and discovered him rising, the color draining from him entirely. She screamed again. Elric and Suska moved to take the first demon out, and it grabbed Elric by the throat, deadening the flesh of his throat and almost dropping him. He ended up killing the fiend instead, luckily, and lived to aid in destroying the new monstrosity. Before that, however, in his own attempt to take out the second wight, Ingo accidentally cast a dagger into Nala. After all was safe again, Suska healed this and several other wounds, including Elric’s, but unlike Nala, he was unable to completely overcome the effects of the wight’s deadly touch. He was told by Tec, however, that there was hope in finding a cleric to heal this particular affliction. Suska’s compassionate nature and special affection for Elric cause her to be especially dedicated to nursing him back to full capacity.

We had finally tracked the Duke’s errand boys down, riding them to the point of two of their horses dropping. I feel bad for their mounts, but there was nothing for it, we did what had to be done. Before engaging with them we let Ingo Gertroy and the little ones, Tec Konuc Nac and his two friends, down from the mounts and they snuck off, the better for the negotiations. We decided to approach with a show of strength, but not overly hostile. With our two groups each approaching with caution, their four riding double saddle like a pair of two headed centaurs, ours calm but at the ready. We sent Suska Goodkind and Nalaena “Nala” Falcon ahead to treat with them as our representatives. They spoke for a time, and came back with an offer for single combat. I leapt at the chance, but there was disagreement about whether or not we should accept. Ingo Gertroy and Nalaena “Nala” Falcon ended up abstaining from the vote, I assume so that if we lost they could still pull off an ambush. Suska Goodkind and I both wanted to champion this, but in the end I convinced her that I should be the one to do it. It came down to the fact that she has her head on tighter then I do and she is more important to this then I am, not to mention the fact that if I watched her get hurt I might have to kill someone, but I didn’t tell her that part. The other champion and I made our terms, set our field, and got to the pain. He was quick, using a split spear weapon I wasn’t familiar with, and he got me good a few times. The key to winning this one was perseverance. I weathered his storm of blows, and came back swinging hard, cracking his chest plate. We traded blows, and it was a close thing, but I forced him to yield in the end. Suska provided healing for myself and my opponent, a truly honorable act. The next morning we parted ways, with the knights returning to their dishonorable Duke Kinter Cassio, but they gained a measure of respect from me. We continued on, walking beside our noble steeds as they recovered from their arduous run. We traveled this way all day and some of the night, and once we finally camped we had to ward the perimeter with fire to fend off the wolves. We set out again this way the next day, until we spotted smoke in the distance. Nala and Nyan (The Fire Gazer) Parun climbed their way up a pair of trees, and spotted the source of the smoke, a town on fire. After much debate on the merits of attempting to find out if this had anything to due with the kobolds, or rushing off to save the queen, we sent our more nimble and quiet members off to scout. They came back with disturbing news, the town had been invaded by bandits bent on enslaving them. Though comprised mostly of orcs, humans worked willingly amongst them. This made my blood boil. Ingo and the kobolds insisted that we did not have time for this, that we must go on to find the queen, but I disagreed. I said that anyone that wanted to go could, but that I would not leave until the bandits were dead or gone. After further disagreement, only Suska, Nala, Nyan and myself stayed with the others moving ahead to try to find the queen. I don’t really blame them, but at the time it did bother me. We decided that the best course of action was for Suska and I to create a distraction so that Nala and Nyan could sneak in and free the prisoners, and then lead them to our aid. We fought our way in, both of us having imbibed my potions to turn the tables in our favor, and fought our way into an alley way. We held there against most of the rest of the bandits, about eight of them. We held them off, killing as many of them as we could, but I began to wear down. Nala and Nyan were successful though, and the reinforcements came to our aid and drove the bandits out. We accepted their aid, and rested the night in what was left of the town. We had to leave without helping them rebuild, which I regret, but we new we had to move on to find the rest of our group.

Note to all players: Saturn Neko and I are going to draw all of the characters and some scenes from game play, so if everyone could provide a sufficient description on their character’s page that would be essential. It should include race, class, height, weight, body type/build, hair, eye, and skin colors, physical characteristics (ie. pointy nose, big eyes, crooked smile, scars, tattoos …etc.), and clothing descriptions. This is necessary for getting some awesome art on the site. Also if you would like to request a certain pose/profile pic/scene just let me or Saturn know, and we’ll do our best. For now most art will be on the game’s Deviant art page, you can find the link in wiki under “dev art account and art”.